Late Night Retro Television Review: Pacific Blue 4.22 “The Right Thing”

Posted on October 6, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Pacific Blue, a cop show that aired from 1996 to 2000 on the USA Network! It’s currently streaming everywhere, though I’m watching it on Tubi.

This week, the fourth season comes to a close.

Episode 4.22 “The Right Thing”

(Dir by John B. Moranville, originally aired on April 25th, 1999)

Businessman John Patrone (Fred Saldone) has negotiated a peace treaty between two gangs, one black and one Latino. Finally, there will be peace in Santa Monica! However, at a rally to celebrate the treaty, a sniper shoots Patrone dead. At first, I was amazed that the police didn’t have anyone on those rooftops to prevent something like this from happening. Then I realized that security for the rally was being provided solely by Pacific Blue. Of course, the bicycle cops would screw this up.

Despite the fact that John Patrone was a major figure in Santa Monica, we never see any Homicide detectives working the case. Instead, it somehow falls to the bicycle cops to investigate. What they discover is that, despite his altruistic image, Patrone was actually a monster who sold weapons and drugs to the gangs and who raped and impregnated the daughter of Bruce Best (Kevin McClatchey). Bruce’s daughter killed herself and that’s why Bruce assassinated Patrone.

Bruce doesn’t make any effort to disguise the fact that he killed Patrone. He admits it to Bobby, Granger, Jamie, and Monica. However, the four rookie cops are convinced that Patrone deserved to die and that Bruce did “the right thing” by shooting him. In a move that is totally out-of-character for him, Bobby decides to throw all of the evidence implicating Bruce into harbor. Unfortunately, Bobby is being watched by Susan Jessup (Holly Gagnier) of Internal Affairs. Susan goes to TC and offers to let Bobby off the hook in exchange for sex. (As ludicrous a character as Susan may be, Holly Gagnier’s wonderfully unhinged performance was the highlight of the episode.) TC replies that he will arrest Bobby and Bruce personally. This episode ends with a cliffhanger as all four of our rookies pose for their mugshots.

Meanwhile, Chris and Cory deal with a teenager who wants to shoot himself out of a cannon. It’s a bit odd that the bike patrol’s two most experienced cops aren’t working the Patrone murder but whatever. I’ve given up on trying to follow Pacific Blue logic.

We’ll find out the fates of Bobby, Jamie, Granger, and Monica next week, when we start the final season of Pacific Blue. I really can’t wait for all this to be over with!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Pacific Blue 4.21 “Lucky 13”

Posted on September 29, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Pacific Blue explores the dark side!

Episode 4.21 “Lucky 13”

(Dir by Emily Skopov, originally aired on April 18th, 1999)

A murder at an occult shop leaves two witches dead. Another witch is found barely alive on the beach, her body branded with alchemical signs. The bike cops are dumbfounded. I’m confused as to why there aren’t any Homicide detectives around. And Granger …. well, Granger’s freaking out because he’s been having nightmares about his dead friend, Tim.

In this episode, Granger reveals that he knows a lot about occult symbols. When TC demands to know why Granger knows so much (as if it’s any of TC’s business), Granger explains that he used to be into Satanism. Obviously, this means that Granger can’t go undercover in this case. As Cory puts it, it would be like sending a junkie into a drug den. So, Jamie is the one who gets a job working at the occult shop and pretending to be into Satanism.

How bad is Jamie at working undercover? Well, let’s ignore the fact that there’s no way in Hell anyone would ever believe that bland, boring, mild-mannered Jamie is into the occult. Instead, let’s talk about the fact that, at one point, Jamie stands in the middle of an aisle of the occult store, where anyone could hear her, and she calls Granger to tell him everything that she’s overheard. Seriously, she couldn’t step outside to do that? Later, when Granger unexpectedly show’s up at the Witch’s Brew coffeehouse, Jamie confront him by loudly asking, “Are you trying to take my case!?” despite the fact that they’re surrounded by the people that Jamie is supposed to be secretly investigating.

This really is a terrible episode for Jamie. When Granger is feeling guilty over the death of Tim (who died shortly after Granger convinced him to give his soul to the Devil), Jamie tells him to stop it with the “self-pity.” Uhmm, Jamie …. didn’t we just spend two episodes listening to you going on and on about growing up in the foster system? Jamie’s not in a position to talk. Jamie then ends up sleeping with Granger, though the show suggests that Jamie’s actions were largely due to the influence of being around magic.

Anyway, it turns out the Satanists are planning on sacrificing a virgin witch on “Lucifer’s birthday.” Granger knows that he has to stop this sacrifice on his own so he gives his superiors a fake address to go to. Then Granger goes to the real sacrifice. Fortunately, Bobby Cruz follows him and shows up in time to help Granger shoot the bad Satanists and save the virgin’s life.

(For all the slut-shaming that goes on in this country, it’s not the sluts who end up getting sacrificed in stupid occult rituals. Promiscuity can save your life.)

With Bobby’s encouragement, Granger goes to Confession. “It’s been seven years since my last confession….” Uh-oh, this could take a while!

This episode deserves some credit for finally giving Granger a backstory. That said, this episode featured some of the least convincing occultists that I’ve ever seen and some of the lamest metaphysical dialogue this side of Baywatch Nights. Actually, if this had been an episode of Baywatch Nights, it would have been a lot more fun. As it is, it’s hard to buy into the idea that the forces of darkness could be defeated by a bunch of bicycle cops.

At one point, Bobby says that too many people have died because of pentagrams. Monica points at his crucifix and asks, “What about the Crusades?” I always find it funny how people seem to think that bringing up something that happened during the Middle Ages is some sort of flex. Bobby could have just as easily replied, “What about Baal worship, you heathen!?” I’m a little upset that he didn’t. That would have been fun.

Oh well. At least this episode had a horror theme. October is just a day away!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Pacific Blue 4.20 “Trust”

Posted on September 22, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Cory makes another stupid mistake.

Episode 4.20 “Trust”

(Dir by Terence H. Winkless, originally aired on April 11th, 1999)

When her best friend is murdered, Cory assumes that the killer is her friend’s ex-boyfriend, Mark (Joel Gretsch). FBI profiler Jerry Beck (Eric Scott Woods) agrees. In fact, he claims that Mark is a serial killer who has been stalking and killing blondes across the country. Cory, who blames herself for her friend’s death and who has recently broken up with Bobby Cruz, works with Jerry to try to stop Mark’s reign of terror. But what if Jerry Beck isn’t who he says he is? What if the real Jerry Beck was murdered and an imposter took on his identity?

This is one of those episodes where Monica pretty much figures out what’s going on but everyone ignores her because both the characters and the show itself seem to have a bizarre hated for her. Every episode in which Monica appears seems to feature Monica doing better detective work than everyone else on the bike patrol and getting absolutely no credit for it. In this case, Cory does eventually admit that Monica was right so I guess that’s progress.

Oh, this was a stupid episode. Having an FBI profiler turn out to actually be a serial killer isn’t a bad idea but having the killer somehow steal the identity of an actual FBI agent without anyone noticing is one of those things that just asks for too much of a suspension of disbelief. Having Cory then fall for the fake FBI agent while she’s supposed to searching for the killer of her best friend was just another example of Cory basically acting like an idiot. That’s been a frequent thing with Cory this season. It’s odd because Cory used to actually be the smart member of the bike patrol.

While Cory is trying to avenge her friend’s death, Granger hooks up with a woman that he meets online. Jamie is skeptical that CyberVixen is going to be the next Mrs. Granger. It’s always funny to me to see television shows that attempted to deal with the Internet in the 90s. You can always tell that they were written by aging boomers who weren’t quite sure what the Internet was and probably expected it to just be a brief fad.

To me, the funniest moment in this episode was the members of Pacific Blue realizing that Cory was alone with a serial killer so, instead of calling a squad car, they all just hopped on their bicycles and rode over to Cory’s apartment. I mean, would it kill them to take a car for once? I imagine they would have gotten over to the apartment quicker.

This episode was pretty dumb.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 9/13/26 — 9/19.26

Posted on September 19, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Once again, this week was more about getting ready for our annual October Horrorthon than watching television. Here’s a few thoughts on what I did watch.

The latest season of Big Brother is slowly coming to an end. I’ve kind of been writing about it over at Reality TV Chat Blog. As I mentioned over there, I’ve found it next to impossible to really get into this season. I am, however, looking forward to a new season of Survivor on the 23rd and a new season of The Amazing Race on the 30th!

On Monday and Tuesday, I watched several episodes of the E! True Hollywood Story on YouTube. Most of the uploads were taken straight from old VHS recordings and, as such, they came with the commercials that aired with the show. I was in history nerd heaven! I watched episodes about Rodney Harvey, Growing Pains, Three’s Company, the Brat Pack, and more!

On Wednesday, I watched an episode of SCTV on Netflix. It was a 30-minute parody of Fantasy Island. I laughed so hard that I almost fell off my couch. I loved Eugene Levy and John Candy as Roarke and “Patoo.”

On Friday night, I watched an episode of something called Turn of The Century. It aired on New York public access television in the 90s. It was very experimental and deliberately arty and I got bored with it. It was trying a bit too hard.

I also watched and reviewed episodes of Degrassi, CHiPs, Pacific Blue, Hunter, and Sledge Hammer!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Pacific Blue 4.19 “Near Death”

Posted on September 15, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week’s episode is stupid even for Pacific Blue.

Episode 4.19 “Near Death”

(Dir by Gary Winter, originally aired on April 4th, 1999)

Before I say anything else about this episode, allow me to say this: Ugh.

Okay, so check this out. A group of home invaders, led by Claire (Monica Louwerens) and her husband Milo (Matt Borlenghi), are in a van, fleeing from their latest robbery. TC, Chris, Cory, and Bobby are all chasing after them on their bikes. The van takes a sharp turn, the passenger-side door flies open, and Claire falls out. TC swerves to avoid Claire and is thrown straight into an electrical junction box. TC gets electrocuted.

Cory, Chris, and Bobby all arrive and immediately run over to TC. TC isn’t breathing. There’s no heartbeat. Cory and Bobby perform CPR. TC, meanwhile, is having a near-death experience, which means that we get a montage of old clips. They manage to bring TC back to life, but no one bothers to check on Claire. Claire ends up in a coma and subsequently dies at the hospital. Milo blames the cops for ignoring his wife while all of them gathered around TC.

…and Milo is absolutely right. Don’t get me wrong. It makes sense that Cory, Bobby, and especially Chris would be worried about TC. But it doesn’t change the fact that they basically just left another gravely injured person on the street while they gathered around TC. This is not the first time that something like this happened on Pacific Blue, and it’s yet another example of our heroes being rather selfish people.

Later, Cory announces to all the other bicycle cops that their first priority is to track down Milo and his gang because “this one is personal.” In other words, don’t worry about any of the other crimes that might be happening in Santa Monica because those crimes don’t directly involve any of the show’s stars. As is often the case with this show, it’s never really explained why the case apparently only belongs to the bicycle patrol. We don’t see any burglary detectives investigating the home invasions or anything like that. I guess the bike patrol has jurisdiction over everything.

As for TC, he reacts to his near-death experience by becoming more philosophical. He’s determined to always tell the truth. Over the course of the episode, he insults all four of the rookies: Granger, Cruz, Jamie, and Monica. Later, once TC starts to return to normal, he apologizes to Granger, Cruz, and Jamie but smirks when Monica asks if TC has anything he wants to say to her. “Nope,” he says. It’s kind of weird how this show wants its audience to hate Monica despite the fact that Monica is usually the only one of the cops who can be depended upon to do her job.

This episode really annoyed me. There was just something really annoying about a show about bicycle cops attempting to impart some sort of philosophical message about life. Did no one consider that TC is nowhere near a deep enough character to be believable as someone who worries about the larger questions of existence? Did no one consider that Jim Davidson’s limited range made him exactly the wrong actor for this type of story? In the past, TC was always dull but reliable. In this episode, he’s condescending. Since Chris and Cory were already condescending and have been for several seasons, TC joining them pushed this episode to new heights of unearned smugness.

This was an annoying episode. At least no one went undercover.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 9/6/26 — 9/12/126

Posted on September 12, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Again, I didn’t watch much TV this week. I wish I could say that it was because I was busy watching horror movies in anticipation of Horrorthon but mostly it was just because I wasn’t feeling that good. I started out with a touch of arthritis in my big toe making it difficult for me to walk or sleep. Luckily that only lasted a day. However, as soon as that was vanquished, I ended getting hit by my allergies. I was congested all the way through Friday. On the plus side, I recovered enough that, on Saturday, I could go outside and spray a bunch of wasps that were trying to build a nest on the side of the empty house next to mine.

I did watch Big Brother. I kind of wrote about it over at Reality TV Chat Blog. The show just hasn’t done much for me this year.

I watched a few episodes of SCTV on Netflix. Love that Count Floyd!

And then I watched and reviewed episodes of Pacific Blue, Hunter, and Sledge Hammer!

Yep, I didn’t do anything this week.

Other than suffer….

Late Night Retro Television Review: Pacific Blue 4.18 “Thicker Than Water”

Posted on September 8, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, the Pumpkin Man strikes! It’s even dumber than it sounds.

Episode 4.18 “Thicker Than Water”

(Dir by Scott Lautanen, originally aired on March 21st, 1999)

A mob lawyer and his wife have been murdered, and for some reason the bicycle patrol is investigating the case instead of Homicide. When it becomes apparent that the lawyer’s son, Andy Jr. (Scotty Cox), has disappeared, Cory makes it her mission to track him down. This is yet another episode where Cory is willing to do whatever it takes to solve the case. Of course, in Cory’s case, that usually means walking around and glaring at people.

Cory discovers that Andy Jr. is with his real mother, a stripper named Angela (Angela Marsden). Angela was the dead lawyer’s mistress. When Cory tracks down Angela, she learns that Andy doesn’t know his father is dead, but he does know that “the Pumpkin Man” came to the house. Meanwhile, the FBI sends over an agent who is big and bald… JUST LIKE THE LEAD SINGER OF SMASHING PUMPKINS!

You may think that I’m making this up, but no, it’s very, very true. Andy calls the killer the Pumpkin Man because he thinks the killer looks like Billy Corgan. When he sees the FBI agent, Andy shouts, “The Pumpkin Man! SMASHING PUMPKINS!”

Because Cory is currently in hiding with Angela, the bicycle patrol decides to go undercover. Monica gets a job dancing at the strip club. Well, of course she does. Whenever T.C. says that someone is going undercover, that means Monica is going to be looking for clues while undressed. One of the more annoying things about this season is that Monica always does a good job while she’s undercover, but no one ever gives her any credit for it. Instead, the other members of the bike patrol just roll their eyes and give an exasperated sigh whenever Monica says something. If they have a problem with Monica constantly flirting with all of the bad guys, they might want to talk to T.C., since he’s the one who keeps assigning her to do it.

This episode was dumb even by Pacific Blue standards. I already mentioned that it makes no sense for a bunch of uniformed bicycle cops to be investigating a high-profile murder. It also doesn’t really make any sense for a bike cop to go undercover at a strip club. I mean, isn’t that what Vice is for? There’s also a moment where T.C. tells off the FBI for trying to interfere with the investigation. I think the FBI ranks higher than the bike patrol. Finally, the kid playing young Andy was an absolutely lousy actor, and that crooked FBI agent may have been bald, but he still didn’t look that much like Billy Corgan.

Someday I’m going to run out of Pacific Blue episodes to review. It can’t come soon enough.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 8/30/26 — 9/5/26

Posted on September 5, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi, everyone!

As is the tradition here at the TSL Bunker, this month has been all about getting ready for the annual October Horrorthon! As a result, I’ve spent the previous few days watching a lot of horror movie and not a lot of television. Here’s a few thoughts on what little I did watch.

I am still watching and occasionally writing about Big Brother 28. I say that I’m “occasionally” writing about it because, even though I have a whole other blog devoted to the show, I have to admit that I’m kind of over this season of Big Brother. The houseguests are not particularly likable. The twists are even lamer than usual. I’m still not sure why Julie Chen Moonves is still the host. This show has been on the air for 26 years and Julie still seems to struggle with the basics. I was happy that Devens survived this week. Go Devens! You can read my thoughts on Big Brother at Reality TV Chat Blog.

Along with Big Brother, I watched an episode of Big Brother Unlocked, which is the companion series that also airs on CBS. It’s not much of a show but it’s still obvious that co-host Jerry O’Connell is being groomed to take over the main show when and if Julie ever quits. This week, Jay Mohr was a special guest. Jay said he was a Big Brother superfan but he did not sound very convincing. The other guest was Zingbot. I have no idea what Zingbot had to say about the show. I can never understand a word that stupid robot is saying.

Why do I still watch Big Brother if I hate it so much? It’s a case of nostalgia. When I was growing up, I watched Big Brother with my mom. It was our little tradition. When I watch the show today, it brings back a lot of memories. Plus, I’m pretty sure mom would have hated this season as well. This was our favorite show to complain about.

On Thursday, I watched a Rangers game with my sister, the dazzling Erin, The Rangers won! Yay! I’m not a big baseball fan but, as all of our regular readers should know by now, my sister is. When the Rangers win, that makes her happy and it makes me happy for her.

On Wednesday, as I watched for Big Brother to start, I watched episodes of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. I took some pride in the fact that I was apparently smarter than the contestants on Jeopardy. As for Wheel of Fortune, it just didn’t feel right for the show to be hosted by anyone other than Pat Sajak. The day after I watched, I read that the Wheel of Fortune announcer was kicked off a plane for looking at an inappropriate site. Yikes!

On Friday night, Jeff and I joined our friend Pat in watching three episodes of a British sitcom called Robin’s Nest. It was a show about a swinging guy in London who ended up living in a tiny flat with two single women. The landlord thought he was gay and I thought he needed a haircut. The show was later adapted for American audiences as Three’s Company. I’ve only seen a few episodes of Three’s Company and I have to admit that I’ve never really cared much for it, if just because the constant misunderstandings were a bit stressful to watch and gave me a headache.

After Robin’s Nest, we watched a show called called Midnight Rider on Night Flight Plus. It was a deliberately surreal sketch comedy show that was obviously designed to be a “cult” hit. We all agreed never to watch the show again. It was annoying.

SCTV, a Canadian comedy show from the late 70s and early 80s, is now available on Netflix! I watched a few episodes on Friday and Saturday and, despite being 50 years old, the show is still very funny. My favorite character was Count Floyd. I had to force myself to stop watching because it was distracting me from doing my Horrorthon reviews. However, I look forward to returning to SCTV in November!

As for my Retro Television reviews, I watched episodes of Degrassi, CHiPs, Pacific Blue, 1st & Ten, Hunter, Sledge Hammer, and Saved By The Bell this week! I’m trying to get all of my Retro Television Reviews for October written in September so I can devote October solely to horror. Wish me luck!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Pacific Blue 4.17 “Scarlet Rose”

Posted on September 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, the bicycle cops investigate a 50 year-old cold case.

Episode 4.17 “Scarlet Rose”

(Dir by Paul Brown, originally aired on March 7th, 1999)

In the 1940s, Santa Monica was shaken by the brutal murder of an actress nicknamed the Scarlet Rose. Her ghost is said to haunt the ballroom where she used to dance and where it’s believed she met her still-unknown murderer. Now, after nearly 50 years, the ballroom is reopening as the Scarlet Rose Ballroom.

Bobby Cruz, who has long been haunted by the stories about the Scarlet Rose, attends the grand opening, where everyone is dressed like it’s the 1940s and swing dancing. When he meets Lily (LuAnne Ponce), he’s stunned because she looks just like the Scarlet Rose. Lily explains that she is Scarlet’s granddaughter and that she’s looking not only for the truth about who killed her grandmother, but also for what happened to a valuable necklace Scarlet owned.

Bobby suspects that Walter (William Schallert), an older man who hangs around the club, might have had something to do with Scarlet’s murder. He also suspects that it might somehow be linked to a recent robbery at a jewelry store. He takes his suspicions to T.C.

“We are going undercover!” T.C. announces.

Yes, this is yet another episode in which the members of Pacific Blue go undercover. These episodes never make sense to me, because the members of Pacific Blue are bicycle cops. They’re not detectives. They’re not trained to go undercover. They’re trained to ride around on their bikes, hand out traffic tickets, and secure crime scenes until the real detectives can show up.

In this episode, going undercover means that Monica gets a job singing at the club while Cory and Jamie hang out at the bar and glare at everyone like the two biggest killjoys in existence. It isn’t just that it doesn’t make any sense for these people to be working undercover. It’s also that none of them are particularly good at it. Cory and Jamie may be dressed up like 1940s femme fatales, but they still give off an immediate cop vibe.

For the record, the case of the Scarlet Rose is solved. It turns out that she was murdered by an associate of Los Angeles gangster Mickey Cohen. Considering that Cohen was a real person, it feels a little unfair to pin a fictional murder on him, but I guess Pacific Blue felt that, since he wasn’t around to complain, it wouldn’t be a problem.

(The Scarlet Rose was clearly based on the Black Dahlia murder case. It seems like every few years, someone publishes a book claiming to have solved the Black Dahlia case. Former LAPD detective Steve Hodel built an entire literary career out of accusing his late father of being responsible for the Dahlia’s murder and practically every other unsolved murder in California.)

A few positive things can be said about this episode. The 1940s-style costumes were to die for. The real-life band Jumpin’ Jimes provided the episode with a great soundtrack, and the swing dance scenes were nicely choreographed. The Scarlet Rose Ballroom looked like a fun place to hang out. Not even the dour presence of Cory and Jamie could suck the fun out of that place. Finally, old pro William Schallert gave a good performance as a potential suspect who wasn’t entirely what he seemed to be.

In other words, this was actually a pretty good episode of Pacific Blue. I’ll never understand why the bicycle cops were investigating a 50-year-old cold case, but whatever. It was still an entertaining episode.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 8/23/26 — 8/29/26

Posted on August 29, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I spent this week binging Crime Story, St. Elsewhere, and Baywatch. My goal here is to write up three months worth of Retro Television Reviews over the next week so that I can devote all of September and October to horrorthon.

I also watched Big Brother 28. Thursday was the 1,000th episode of Big Brother. Since I’ve see every episode, I did the math and discovered that I have spent the equivalent of 43 days just watching Big Brother. That left me feeling very depressed.

On Friday, my friend Pat McCurry put together a tribute for Tim Curry and Dolly Parton. First, we watched a thoroughly forgettable 2000 sitcom called Bette. As you can guess from the title, it starred Bette Midler as herself. The episode that we watched featured Bette appearing on Dolly Parton’s Halloween special. Dolly was charming. The rest of the sitcom was pretty forgettable. We followed this with an episode of a 90s crime show called Wiseguy. Tim Curry played a crooked music producer. The show was serialized so I really couldn’t follow the plot but Curry gave a typically magnetic preformance.

Along with my binging, I also watched and reviewed CHiPs, Pacific Blue, 1st & Ten, Hunter, Sledge Hammer, and Saved By The Bell.

And I also watched a Republican Presidential Primary Debate from 1996! It was on YouTube. I liked that Lamar Alexander. Did he win?